Patriot Cigar (recovered...)

I thought I would try my hand at one of the patriot pen kits. The upper barrel assembly is not as easy as the instructions make it out to be. Needless to say, despite using soapy water (per the instructions) and taking my time, about half of the little stars would not fit. I spent over an hour trying to tweak each opening. When I went to try to seat the stars better, the upper barrel cracked in a couple of places. A few choice words later, I calmed down and ordered a blue dyed buckeye burl blank and used it for the upper barrel. I think it came out OK but sure would have liked to have all those stars. Mechanism is an Ultra Cigar.